Doing WDW on my own again, a February 2012 PTR

[PhoenixStrength]

Hello all, and welcome to my pre-trip report! This is my first attempt at a PTR, but I know it will be fun for all!

First, a little about me! My name is Stephanie, and I am a 27 year old single girl from Maryland. I have a dog and 4 cats, and am the Manager of a pet sitting company here in MD. Obviously, I love animals. I volunteer with animal rescue, at shelters and helping with transports (getting animals out of kill shelters and into homes or no-kill rescues). I have two younger sisters and my wonderful parents, who all also love Disney. Here is a picture of me from last November, at WDW of course!

I have to be honest, I don't like that picture much, but it is one of the most recent of me. I've actually lost 25 lbs since then, and am still working on losing more.

So, there I am. I will come back soon to post details on my vacation and other things, including the WDW planning binder I am making!

And, please feel free to comment or ask anything, and I will answer posts as I can. Thanks everyone!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay! I'm so glad that you've started your pre-trip report. I can't wait to hear all about your plans!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Yay! I'm so glad that you've started your pre-trip report. I can't wait to hear all about your plans!

Thanks Lisa! I'm just excited to be going again.

 

[aprilisis]

I'm subscribing! I can't wait to hear more about your plans!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I'm subscribing! I can't wait to hear more about your plans!

Thanks April! I should be posting about my basic plans later today!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Hello again. So, I've introduced myself so now lets get down to the plans!

I will be arriving at the World on February 8th and leaving on the 18th. I am driving down from MD, so the exact arrival time is iffy, but I will probably get in around 4pm. It is about a 14-15 hour drive from my home to WDW. I've done the drive 3 other times, and actually enjoy it. That evening will probably be getting settled and maybe a trip over to DTD for some souvenir shopping.

POP Century Resort in WDW will be my home for that time.

I love how the Rubik's Cube is also the stairwell for this building, which you can kinda see in this picture:

This will be my second time staying onsite, my second solo trip and my second time at POP Century. I've been to WDW 3 other times with family, so this will be my fifth trip to WDW total. I actually was originally thinking of camping at Ft. Wilderness, but changed my mind before booking. I decided I didn't want to be walking through the campground in the dark trying to find my campsite each night. But, maybe someday I will do that option.

I am getting an 8 Day Park pass, with no add-ons. Probably will do each theme park twice, but I haven't decided for sure yet. I know I will do Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Epcot two days each, but I'm just not sure about visiting Hollywood Studios twice, or just once and another park for a third time. I like Hollywood Studios, but it never seems to take my one full day to do everything, so I don't know if I want to take two days there. My ninth full day will probably be spent at DTD and/or other activities at WDW besides the parks.

No Water Park this time, due to the unpredictablity of the temperatures that time of year. With my luck it would be in the 40s the entire time I was there if I bought the water park ticket! Even if the water is heated, the air would still be too cold between slides and attractions. I'm sure I will do one next time though! I am planning on doing the Wild Africa Trek one of the AK days, which I am super excited for. It is a little pricey, but right up my alley so I cannot resist!

I've done the Dining Plan before, but not this time. I did it last time I stayed at POP, but after adding up what it would cost me versus what I would spend on my own, it will actually cost a few hundred dollars to buy my meals on my own versus the Quick Service Dining Plan even. I really only eat at Counter Service anyway since I feel weird eating at TS restaurants solo. I may do one or two TS places, but definitely not every night. If anyone else has gone solo and knows a good TS to try on my own, please let me know. Or, even if you haven't done a solo visit but have a suggestion I will take it!

So, those are my plans so far. I will be keeping you updated as I make further plans, and on little things (and big things!) going on in my life too. I will also have a side trip that I will do a mini-TR within this thread that I am taking in October. I am taking a road trip out to Utah to visit Best Friends Animal Society, the nation's largest animal rescue, spend time with friends, and visit at least Bryce Canyon National Park, if not other national parks as well. This will be my third trip out there and I love it almost as much as WDW!

I also have a lot of other planning going on right now, as one of my younger sisters is getting married in September and I am the maid of honor. So, the bridal shower, bachelorette party and wedding are all happening in the next two months. I'm so happy for her, as her life has been very difficult for the past 1.5+ years, which I'm sure I will explain in a future installment!

 

[aprilisis]

Great photos of Pop Century!!! I think it's great that you're going to Best Friends Animal Society! I didn't know people could visit there. Bryce Canyon is SO awesome- I'm jealous!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Great photos of Pop Century!!! I think it's great that you're going to Best Friends Animal Society! I didn't know people could visit there. Bryce Canyon is SO awesome- I'm jealous!

Thanks. Those pictures are from when my sisters and I went there in September 2008.

People can absolutely visit BFAS! Thousands visit every year. You can do tours, and even volunteer an any of the animal areas. It is so much fun, and you are helping homeless pets at the same time.

I can't wait to visit Bryce Canyon. I may even do the horseback tour if it is still running when I go. They only schedule up until October 15th due to the weather, but will do them after that is the weather is good. I won't be going to Bryce until the 20th, so they told me to call the week before to schedule the horseback tour. I did the Zion horseback tour in 2009, and it was great.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great pics of Pop Century. We went to the resort one day to have a look around and ate lunch there. It looks like a fun resort that I wouldn't mind staying in if they just had covered bus stops and fridges in the room.

Your trip to Utah sounds like it's going to be amazing. It's been years since I've been to that part of the country. My sister used to live in Durango, Colorado and I loved going to visit her.

 

[DWGal210]

Hi!! I'm also going solo, Feb 8-12!! Maybe we can meet for a snack or drink or something!

I'm doing solo TS dining this trip; I hope to be making those decisions soon!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Great pics of Pop Century. We went to the resort one day to have a look around and ate lunch there. It looks like a fun resort that I wouldn't mind staying in if they just had covered bus stops and fridges in the room.

Your trip to Utah sounds like it's going to be amazing. It's been years since I've been to that part of the country. My sister used to live in Durango, Colorado and I loved going to visit her.

It is a fun resort. I wish they had free fridges and covered bus stops too, but I will make do without them for the price difference! And Utah will be amazing! When I post more on that trip I will include a few pics from the last time I was there, in 2009.

Hi!! I'm also going solo, Feb 8-12!! Maybe we can meet for a snack or drink or something!

I'm doing solo TS dining this trip; I hope to be making those decisions soon!

Welcome, and yay! When we get closer to the dates we can certainly compare our schedules and try to meet up.

I'm looking through the menus and such at the TS restaurants now, trying to decide where and when so I can call them at the first date and hopefully get my reservations!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Ok, so I thought I would let you all know a little bit more about me.

I have 2 younger sisters, Heather who is 24, and Lisa, who is 21. My parents, Jennie and Karl, have been married 28 years. Both of my parents have quite a few siblings, so I have a very large family! Here is a picture of all of us together.

Left to right, that is my Mom, Heather's Fiance Jimmy, Me, Heather, my Dad and Lisa.

Heather has been through a lot the past year and a half. One News Years Day 2010 (1/1/10) at 11am she was hit by a woman who was high and drunk and ran a red light. Heather was making a left turn (with the green turn light) and the woman ran the red light coming from Heather's left and hit her directly in the drivers side door going at least 50 mph. I actually drove past the accident about 2-3 minutes after it happened, before rescue even made it there. I had to do a U-Turn once I realized it was her (she had a very common car) and parked in the adjacent parking lot and ran over. By then rescue was cutting her out of the car with the Jaws of Life. It was the scariest feeling I have ever had. When they pulled her out she was so pale I thought she was dead, which she was not (obviously!).

She wound in a coma for over 2 months. She shattered her left femur and they did surgery the day after the accident and put in a rod and screws (which are permanent). She also had several small fractures in her left pelvis and left shoulder blade, which healed quickly. Thirdly, she had a fracture in one of her vertebrae right by the main vein into her brain, and they were afraid for a while that if her neck moved at all the vein could get stuck in the crack and she would have had a stroke. Thankfully that never happened. She was actually extremely lucky, as she had no internal bleeding, no organ damage and very little bleeding in her brain. She also only had 2 surface scratches from glass on the left side of her face and no other cuts. She woke up the beginning of March, and had no real amnesia at all. She had slight issues with remembering what year it was for the first couple of weeks, but remembered everything else easily. She was finally released from the hospital April 13, 2010. She unfortunately has permanent physical damage due to the accident and from being in the coma. Her left arm is almost unusable. She has very little control over it now. Her left leg gives her trouble and she cannot walk on her own. She is still improving daily though, and can take a few steps completely on her own now. Otherwise she uses a cane or leans on someone for balance to walk. Lastly, she had throat damage due to all the tubes they had in her throat for so long, so her vocal cords were damaged. She can talk, but it is slightly garbled and difficult to understand at times. She is a huge inspiration for me. She is in constant pain (though that is thankfully lessening as she gains back lost muscle), but never gives up. A few days after the accident the doctors told us that she was a vegetable and would never wake up. Right after the doctor said that she moved her toes, despite being in a coma. We pointed it out and the doctor said she had just proved him wrong.

Jimmy has been her rock through it all. I will be honest, none of us were sure that he would stick around when she was in a coma. They had been together over 3 years, but it had been rocky. Thankfully he proved us all wrong and has really stepped it up and proved that he deserves her. The day after she got out of the hospital he proposed, despite having once told Heather that he never wanted to get married. The accident had shown him how easily he could lose her and changed his mind. They are getting married September 24th of this year, their 5 year anniversary of dating.

So, I debated whether or not to put this picture in here, but I have decided to put it to show the effects of driving while drunk and/or high. While I'm sure no one on the Dis would ever be that stupid , here it is. This is a picture of Heather's car after the accident, at the impound lot. While the roof was taken off by the Jaws of Life, the rest of the damage is from the impact. It is truly a miracle that she even survived the accident itself.

Truly, while what happened to Heather is horrible, she and we are all just happy she is alive and able to do as much as she can. And we know one day she will be completely self-sufficient again.


So, moving on from the unhappy now! I have several pets, in fact I have 1 dog and 4 cats. I have more pictures of them than anything else. Here are a few pics of Phoenix, my 7 year old Beagle/Belgian Malinois/? mix.

And here he is at 4 months old

Jag is my 9 year old Maine Coon mix. I adopted him from my local animal control when he was 10 weeks old. He is ultra laid back and extremely friendly. He was my first pet of my own after I moved out of my parent's house.

He and Phoenix are great buddies.

I got Turk a week after Jag as a friend for him, so he is also 9. His mother was found by a woman as a pregnant stray. The woman, despite being allergic to cats, couldn't stand the thought of her having the kittens on the streets of Baltimore and took her home. She cared for her and the kittens once they were born. She is actually the one that named him Turk, they all had Disney themed names. I couldn't think of a better name, so I kept it.

Jynx is my 6 year old shy girl. She and her siblings were found in an abandoned car by my parents house after my mom found their mother dead, having been hit by a car. They were about 5 weeks when found. My mother kept an orange male, Lisa kept a Torbi female, I kept Jynx, and the other two found great homes.

Last, but not least, is Sweetie. She was the cat I was not going to keep. I used to live in a very rural area and there were several feral cats living in the woods behind my house. I decided to try to trap them to at least get them fixed so they wouldn't reproduce. The first one I trapped was Sweetie, in December 2006. She was about 9 months at the time and had a large wound on her head, and very feral! I kept her in my bathroom while I gave her antibiotics. I was not going to put her outside, in December, with a foot of snow on the ground and a bad sore on her head. I figured I'd keep her there until she finished the meds and the wound healed, then let her back out. Well, after about 10 days she decided to become friendly. I couldn't put her back out after that, and since she did great with the other 3 cats and Phoenix, I kept her.

You can't see in that picture, but she has the most gorgeous teal eyes.

So, that is my family and pets. Sorry if this post was a downer, but I am so proud of Heather and how far she has come and the odds she has beat.

Next update will have some more info about everything that is upcoming in my life!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Your most recent post was definitely not a "downer". Heather is very lucky to be alive and I, for one, am glad that you posted the pictures and her story so that if there are any of the readers out there who have driven drunk, they can see what could possibly happen. I find Heather's spirit and will an inspiration.

All of the pictures of the pets are so sweet. If it were up to me, I'd have a house and yard full of pets too. I think I've reached my limit though with one dog and three cats.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Your most recent post was definitely not a "downer". Heather is very lucky to be alive and I, for one, am glad that you posted the pictures and her story so that if there are any of the readers out there who have driven drunk, they can see what could possibly happen. I find Heather's spirit and will an inspiration.

All of the pictures of the pets are so sweet. If it were up to me, I'd have a house and yard full of pets too. I think I've reached my limit though with one dog and three cats.

Thanks! She is an inspiration to me too.

I always planned on having 2 dogs and 2 cats. Obviously has not worked out like that!

 

[aprilisis]

Wow! That is amazing that Heather survived that accident. What an inspiration! I love that she moved her toes right after the doctor said she wouldn't wake up. That is just awesome that she is improving every day!
OMG- I think I am in cuteness overload from Phoenix, Jag, Turk, Jynx, & Sweetie! Thanks for posting those photos!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Wow! That is amazing that Heather survived that accident. What an inspiration! I love that she moved her toes right after the doctor said she wouldn't wake up. That is just awesome that she is improving every day!
OMG- I think I am in cuteness overload from Phoenix, Jag, Turk, Jynx, & Sweetie! Thanks for posting those photos!

Thanks, she is definitely an inspiration to us! And the fact that it was her toes that moved actually let us know even more that she was "still in there". She has a thing about her feet being touched, it is an inside joke with the family.

And thanks for the compliment on my furry babies! They are all cute, as are yours! I have so many more pictures of them, but I didn't want to overload the page with them.

 

[ZFamily5]

I'm in! I'd love to go solo sometime, but obviously that's going to have to wait (I'm 14). Heather and Jimmy are getting married on my birthday! How exciting! Can't wait for more!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I'm in! I'd love to go solo sometime, but obviously that's going to have to wait (I'm 14). Heather and Jimmy are getting married on my birthday! How exciting! Can't wait for more!

Welcome! Going solo is fun, but you will have to wait for sure And yay for your birthday being my sister's wedding day!

I should have another installment up later today.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Hi again everyone! I, like most of the country it seems, spent this morning on the phone with WDW Reservations. I saw this morning that Free Dining was made available for 6 of the 10 nights I am staying (2/12-18). So I called WDW to try to add this to my reservation. Now, I knew that I would have to separate my reservation into 2 reservations to do this, since you can't start free dining part-way through your stay. It took me about 5 minutes of calling to get through to the automated service (I kept getting an error since so many people were calling) and then waited on hold for 15 minutes to speak to someone. I don't remember her name, but she was useless. I gave her my reservation info and that I wanted to add the newly published Free Dining. I didn't even get to tell her about knowing I would need to split the reservation, as she told me it wasn't possible since I was arriving 2/8 and the free dining didn't start until 2/12. I told her I knew that, and she told me I could hope for one of the PINs that allowed you to get Free Dining during black-out days or change my dates, and then hung up on me! I'm pretty sure it was on purpose too, but not 100%. Irregardless she did not get a good review on the survey after the call!

So, I attempted to call back. It took 20 minutes to not get the error, then I spent another 25 minutes on hold waiting for an agent! Thankfully, this time I got Beauregard, and he was fantastic! Very friendly, and did everything he could to get my the free dining with the lowest cost for the reservations. I had to split my 8 day ticket, since I needed tickets for the first reservation to use before 2/12, and you need at least a 2 day ticket on the reservation with the Free Dining for it to qualify. So, splitting the ticket down to 2 different sets made it cost more than it did before. He did spend 7-8 minutes going through all the splitting options (4 & 4, 3 & 5, 6 & 2) just to make sure I was getting the one that cost the least. He, of course, got a great review!

So, I have a room and 6 Day ticket only reservations for 2/8-2/12, and a package reservation with 2 Day ticket and Free QS Dining for 2/12-2/18. I am going to pay about $125 more this way for the reservation, but it saves me at least $250 on food, so it works out in my favor.

I'm still trying to decide what TS reservations to make. I can call next Friday, August 12th, to schedule, so I need to decide soon! I am pretty sure I am going to do Crystal Palace Character Breakfast one day, and maybe Rainforest Cafe for dinner the first night 2/8 . Beyond that I am still deciding. I always try to make my touring schedule first, since I don't do Park Hopping, that way I know which park I will be at which day and can schedule my meals.

I'm house sitting for a family friend this week, so my evenings are actually kinda boring. I should get a lot more planning and such done in the next few days and can do another update. Until then, hope you all are having a good week so far!

 

[ZFamily5]

Glad you got to take advantage of free dining!